


Numb

by Merixcil



Series: Whumptober 2019 [29]
Category: Inception (2010)
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Gen, depersonalisation, unreality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26375392
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merixcil/pseuds/Merixcil
Summary: Eames tricks Arthur into trying out a weird new dreamspace
Relationships: Arthur & Eames (Inception)
Series: Whumptober 2019 [29]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1838356
Kudos: 4





	Numb

Officially there’s no delineation between a nightmare and a dream. A nightmare is just a dream that scares you, and even the most innocuous dream can give you a fright if you’re at all new to this or you wear your phobias on your sleeve. The first time Arthur went into a dream he nearly shat his pants (and was glad not to have, seeing as how, by all accounts, when you shit your pants in a dream you dish up the same mess to your real world counterpart); it’s like being inserted directly into a film, having the correct emotional responses laid out before you in a code of cinematography and soundscape and script that requires no thought to process in some areas and an eternity of discussion in others to fully unlock it’s potential. 

He knows better now, has been studying the craft for longer. Early cinema audiences saw a train heading right for the camera and screamed like it was about to knock them stone dead, and now Arthur can stand in another person’s mind and be perfectly comfortable. He even knows how to move around without disturbing any of the furniture. 

This is something else entirely. 

Eames had warned him, after a fashion, with a grin and a wink and a promise that if Arthur had the balls to step into this guy’s head he’d be in for the ride of his life. Something truly extraordinary, unmatchable, eerie. He hadn’t been wrong exactly, but he said those things like they were positives, and not a helpless, limitless pit of despair just waiting for damned souls to fall in. 

Either this dreamer is deeply psychologically damaged, or he has had absurdly high level training in defending his subconscious against intruders. Arthur hooks into the dream as easy as anything, emerging into a bright summer’s day, and a meadow where a picnic has been paid out for two people who are apparently absent. He breathes in and smells cut grass from the field over, hears the birds chirping, and then he keeps smelling and hearing and seeing but his extremities freeze up. With so much subtlety that he doesn’t realise till he tries to keep walking and finds that he doesn’t know where his body ends and the rest of the world begins. 

Goes to pinch himself, and his hands have vanished from his mental catalogue of his faculties as well. He tries to look down to confirm that does, in fact, still have a body, but his neck also doesn’t want to play ball. He is a pair of eyes and a nose and some ears. 

Weird, unusual. Like sleep paralysis except the sleep is still definitely with him. And there are no monsters of his mind’s making, he is alone. He is alone and there is no one here. 

No one here, no one here, no one coming. It must be hours, or days, or some improbably long stretch of time (except it can’t reasonably be longer than thirty minutes because he and Eames had an agreement about how this was going to work and Eames might let him suffer for a bit longer but he wouldn’t totally burn him like this). He is nothing and nowhere, undone by the dream. 

Arthur doesn’t even feel the kick, only the sweet rush of air into his lungs as he springs awake. Gasping, reaching for his knees, his chest, his face. Looking down and seeing it all present, all waiting for him. 

Eames is looming over him, a wicked grin on his face. “Freaky, right?”

Arthur could hit him. 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was originally posted as part of a multi chaptered 'whumptober' fic that I'm trying to split up. If you think you've read it before, you probably have
> 
> Comments on the previous posting of this fic (just ask if you want me to remove yours) include:  
> >Melamungous: Been a while since I’ve read some arthur/eames and now I need to read more. Great stuff :)  
> >>Merixcil: It's a great ship to go back to every now and then. Apart from anything else - there's plenty of content to wade through


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